Ido Portal (idoportal.com) is a movement teacher and expert on human movement. He created the Ido Portal Method, a physical fitness practice utilizing the practitioner’s own body weight and movements, rather than external weights and machines, to develop strength, agility, and flexibility.
Andrew Huberman and Ido Portal take a deep dive into movement, covering topics from the role of the nervous system and mind-body connection, to how to leverage movement to expand mental and physical skills.
Host: Andrew Huberman (@hubermanlab)
Humans have a greater variety of movement than any other animal species
Change is important and the primary way to sustain – it’s difficult to overcome at first and within the tension and adaptation lies the beauty
Movement is not just physical, we can move through our emotions and thoughts as well
“We are not just a brain with a body, we are a body with a brain.” – Ido Portal
“Movement is the entity that ties everything together – it’s the magic.” – Ido Portal
The mind and body are in motion when integrated properly – there are not purely physical or purely mental processes
The idea is to find the balance between fun, play, and discomfort, strain – what you want to do versus what you need to do
“Discomfort is necessary to recognize you are in the right place. When it’s too high and you are unable to make progress, you went overboard.” – Ido Portal
A movement practice can start from anywhere in the body or mind (e.g., spine, fun, etc.)
Start with education – discuss, examine, look, but try not to stringently define
Bring awareness to the fact that you are in a body, living in motion, and the mind and life are types of movement – nothing stops
Movement can and should be incorporated into your entire life: pay attention to the rhythm of your breath, and don’t be passive in your physical and mental movements
You don’t need a gym or specific equipment, just move and move often
Domains of movement practice: posture (emotional, mental, physical), integration of postures
Bins of perspective helpful in analyzing movement practice: (1) contraction/relaxation; (2) martial; (3) environment; (4) somatic/internal practice; (5) object manipulatory
Spinal wave: when emotion is evoked, undulate the spine to shift and adapt
Ido Portal squat challenge: accumulate 30 minutes in squat position per day (build-up to this if needed)
Explore different distances and touch: don’t forget to incorporate touch & remove certain reactivity by exploring closer proximity
The nervous system is receiving information from internal and external stimuli
When something is reflexive or second nature, we use the lower motor neurons
Theory: movements of small digits and portions of distal body parts evoke different sensations than movements in the core of the body or closer to the spine
Central orientation (swinging, running, jumping, throwing) is rarer than it used to be – we’ve decentralized our ancient patterns and use our fingertips and extremities more
The opportunity for movement comes from deep within our bodies, we’re always in an anticipatory state of movement
The architecture of our body changes our experiences
Start with the eyes: the eyes are the entry point – we can adjust the aperture of our eyesight to adapt to focus
When eyes (not head) are up, the focus is increased; when eyes (not head) are lower, we go into calmer states
Practice panoramic vision: because our culture has pushed us to more narrowly focused states, we rarely use our panoramic vision – but in nature, we wouldn’t focus on a single leaf, we’d look at the tree
Have a checklist of what you’re looking to do and use it as a guide
Certain body types and emotions facilitate some movements over others
Visualization may not be helpful unless you’ve developed tangible experience reinforced by feedback